


Brothers In All Time

by minolyn



Series: Brothers in all Time [1]
Category: Ylvis
Genre: Gen, NOT Ylvicest, Time Travel, and also current day Ylvis, baby ylvis, brofeels and fluff, sci-fi?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-02-12 02:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2093058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minolyn/pseuds/minolyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>12 year old Vegard and 9 year old Bård come across a time machine. How will they react when they meet themselves 23 years later?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vegard, where are we?

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a 3-sentence-fic prompt I got once upon a time.

Bård was always a little nervous coming out of school at the end of the day. Even though it never happened, he had this irrational fear that Vegard would not be waiting for him outside the gate. Class would end, he’d walk down the long hallway, round the corner through the school doors and search the courtyard nervously. But his 12 year old elder brother was always there, leaning against the wall, raising one hand in a small wave to make sure he sees him.  
Bård suppressed his relieved smile as he approached him, and only set it free when Vegard slung an arm across his shoulders as they started walking home. It made Bård feel as if he was claiming guardianship over him, like he was broadcasting to everyone around them “This is MY brother. Don’t mess with us.”  
The protective embrace doesn’t last long though, because there’s important work to be done. Their eyes searched for interesting objects lying around to aid them in their imaginary mission, whatever it may have been that day. A coin on the ground is a lost treasure, an old clothes hanger - a special gun to shoot the enemy who was sneaking up on one of them. They could have already been home half an hour ago, had they not been dashing through back yards and stealing through narrow passageways in the heat of a game only they could follow.

“Bård, careful!” Vegard yelled when his 9 year old brother slipped on a pile of leaves and nearly hit the ground. When he steadied himself, he looked up and beamed at his older brother, proud of himself.

“I’m serious, I don’t want to have to explain you getting hurt to mama again!”

“Oh, that was one time..” The little blond boy waved his hand dismissively and turned to keep going through the overgrown yard.

“Yeah, one time too many.” Vegard grumbled, looking up and scanning his surroundings, “Anyway, we should be heading home now.”

“Woah, Vegard look what I found!”

Vegard turned his attention back to his brother and found him examining what appeared to be a water-closet in very bad condition. It’s exterior was dark red with rust, and the door hung open half way. Bård was peering inside it.

“What, it’s just an old toilet. Bård get your face out of there, gross.”

“It’s not a toilet…” The little blond boy retorted, then the playful spark flashed in his eye as the idea came to him, “it’s a time machine!”

“Oh?” his interest caught, Vegard came in behind his little brother for a closer look. They could play for a couple more minutes, they weren’t that far from home anyway.

He immediately saw how Bård had decided to dub this a time machine. Inside, at the very center of the small structure, stood a thin rod that split into four handles. Those handles had smaller rods connecting between them, centering at a small hour-glass. It was a peculiar structure, Vegard had never seen anything like it.

“Come on, Vegard, let’s go back in time!” Bård strode into the thing before Vegard could stop him.

“I dunno, Bård, it’s getting a little late. Maybe we should come back to it tomorrow.”

Bård gripped one of the handles and turned to his older brother, “come ooonnn.. We can just go see some dinosaurs real quick!”

Vegard still hesitated, but the look of such pure excitement on Bård’s round little face was too much for him to resist, and he climbed in after him.

“Alright, so where are we going?” He asked, examining the hour glass.

“Put your hand on the thing and I’ll show you.” Bård said, pointing at another one of the handles. Vegard did as he was told and they both started yanking in various directions, though the rods wouldn’t budge. Again, Bård suddenly got an idea, and smacked his hand against the top of the hour glass, making it spin rapidly on its axis.

Vegard felt a sudden strange downward pull in his entire body, like they were in an elevator going downwards faster and faster, and instinctively grabbed his little brother, threw an arm across his chest and held him close as the box shuddered and shook around them.

 

\---

 

The moment the box came to a stand still Vegard shoved Bård out the door and quickly followed him. They found themselves standing, not where they had come in, but on a huge abandoned stage, looking out to a harbor. In fact, it seemed to be earlier in the day than when they had gotten in.

“Where are we?” Vegard heard his little brother ask while his eyes scanned the scene around him, looking for some sort of explanation as to what just happened.

He had absolutely no idea. The only thing that was the same was the box they’d just come out of. There was a large stretch of pavement between them and the water bank, and to either side of the water there was a row of shops and restaurants. Some people were out and about, though not many, and no one appeared to be in the vicinity of the giant stage on which the boys found themselves. ‘This is impossible’ his mind repeated the words over and over. Perhaps he was dreaming, though it didn’t feel like it.

“Vegard, where are we?” Bård asked again.

“I-I don’t know, Bård. I don’t know.” The older boy responded at last.

“Oy!”

A guard came from around the corner, outside the fenced area around the stage. “Get off the stage, kids. This area is off limits!” 

With Vegard frozen to the spot, Bård was first to act this time. He grabbed his older brother’s hand and pulled him towards stage right, hearing the guard yell “No, not that way! Get back here!” after them as they disappeared behind the platform.  
The whole backstage area was surrounded by high fences with black tarps so they couldn’t see outside it. Several trailers were parked there, and without thinking the boys rushed to the nearest one, yanked the door open and ran inside, the door swinging shut behind them. They looked around frantically for a place to hide, found a portable clothes rack stuffed tight with hanging costumes, jackets and coats mostly, and quickly crawled behind it. Moments later they heard running footsteps, the door to the trailer swing open, a couple of steps around the trailer and then back out again, the door slamming shut once more.

“We should get out of here.” Bård whispered after a couple of quiet seconds.

“No, wait. He might still come back.” Vegard pushed him back down to the floor when he rose.

“If he comes back he might find us!”

“If we go out now he’ll surely see us, we should wait until he gives up and thinks we’re gone too.”

“Vegard, do you think we really traveled through time?!”

“That’s impossible, Bård. Please be quiet.”

“But what if-”

“Shh!”

Vegard silenced his little brother, who finally complied since he too heard a new set of footsteps climbing up the stairs to their trailer. It had to be someone else though. Someone who wasn’t looking for them, because the steps were slow and dragged slightly on the ground.

They heard the man sigh after the door swung back shut behind him, as he approached the clothes rack they were hiding behind. Bård watched his brother intently, who was staring wide eyed in fear at the clothes in front of them, rustling around to the person’s touch. But even Bård’s head snapped forward when, directly in front of him, the clothes parted and a hanger holding an all-black outfit was pulled out, revealing a thin, stout man, a mess of black curls for hair, and deep brown eyes staring directly into his.


	2. My name is Vegard too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, here it is. Many alterations have been made to the general plan of the story and now I really have no idea how long it's going to be. 
> 
> ** I have edited the second half of the first chapter (after they come out of the box). If you haven't read the change, please do, otherwise you'll be kind of confused about their location and stuff **
> 
> Caution: Potential plot holes ahead.

He thought this day would never come.  
Vegard was already feeling the relief when he first opened his eyes the morning of August 27th. Today was the last day of the Expensive Jackets tour.

Bård was still snoring quietly in the bed across the room, his face half buried in the white pillow, the duvet crumpled up into one concentrated mass, hugged tight between his limbs. Vegard wondered vaguely whether he held his wife like that in bed, but he wouldn’t ask.  
He got up and started his morning routine, what little of it he could maintain what with waking up somewhere else almost every morning. Bathroom, piss, shower, towel dry hair, brush teeth, go find clothes in suitcase. The whole process was fairly absentminded. Sometimes he forgot to put toothpaste on the brush before putting it in his mouth, Sometimes he forgot to tie one of his shoes before getting up to leave. The only attention he paid to clothes selection was making sure that the outfit contained one pair of underwear, pants, socks, shoes and a shirt. He took no responsibility for his fashion sense whatsoever, and he figured that after all these years with Helene, if something was still in his closet, it was fair game to wear.

He found the venue easily enough. It was pretty much right around the corner from the hotel. Convenient. Only two or three stage workers seemed to be there, but already he was glad for arriving so early. There seemed to be a… a portable john in the middle of the stage. He had a strange feeling of deja vu when he first saw it, but dismissed it thinking it was probably because he wasn’t entirely awake yet.

“Morning.” He called out to a woman in an ONS tshirt milling about on stage.

“Good morning!” she smiled and nodded back at him.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the big rusty box to her left.

She looked at it with a blank expression and shrugged, “I don’t know. It was here when I got here.”

“We need to get this off the stage. It’s not part of the show, unless Bård came up with something new without informing me, which I doubt. Can you help me?” He made an effort to sound witty and nice about it, always self-conscious of perhaps sounding too bossy.  
He must have gotten it right since she nodded again, still smiling, and said, “Sure, no problem.”

They both got to work on dragging the strange structure towards the edge of the stage, when two other ONS clad people showed up, both men, insisting Vegard let them take care of it for him. After some protesting, he remembered why he’d come early and decided to let them have it.

“Do you know where the costumes are supposed to be?” He asked.

“They should be in the nearest trailer through there.” The woman said, pointing towards the far end of the stage.

“Okay. Thanks.” He waved at them and headed off towards the backstage area.

He was a strange mixture of exhausted and excited. This tour was by many means a success and a hell of a lot of fun, but he was quite sure he couldn’t take much more of it. His vocal chords still burned though he’d tried every suggested remedy from tea with honey to breathing exercises. Some things helped a little but what he really needed was rest. He felt like not talking for a week, but between work and family obligations that just wasn’t possible.  
‘Just one last time. I can do that.’ He thought to himself, stepping onto the ground at the bottom of the stairs leading down from the stage. Another person, this time wearing a security uniform, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and nearly ran square into him.

“Oh gosh, sorry!” said the guard, gripping both Vegard’s shoulders to steady him, since he almost lost his balance from the near collision. Vegard suppressed the urge to shrug away the touch. It was a little too early in the day for him to be able to handle this sort of physical contact gracefully from complete strangers. But he had to be nice, so he smiled and shook his head to indicate it was no problem.

“Did you see a couple of kids come through here?” The guy asked. His hands were still on Vegard’s shoulders.

“Uh no… But I just got here.” Vegard’s eyes wandered, refusing to focus on the man.

“Right.. sorry again.” The guy finally let go of him and ran up the steps.

Vegard stared after him for a few blinks, wondering what the hell that was about, before remembering his agenda once more and heading towards the nearest trailer. At the latest show they’d performed, the zipper on his black jeans had jammed and he could only get them off after many long minutes by tearing it open, destroying it completely. Bård laughed his ass off while Vegard struggled with it, more than necessary even because he was laughing too, and said he’d offer to help if it wouldn’t have been “absolutely dangerous”, as he put it. He even filmed him finally busting the zipper open on his phone, but Vegard made him swear he wouldn’t upload it to instagram. Vegard always felt some things should be left for a private giggle and not everything made into “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. People over-share their lives enough anyway.

In any case, he thought it best to come in early and check on the new pants zipper, in case anything was wrong and needed to be fixed in time before the show. He sighed when his eyes found the rack packed with their costumes for the performance. He was going to miss having an excuse to wear some of these awesome jackets, he knew already. He dragged his feet across the room and went through the clothes to find his basic black outfit. He found the thing, pushed a bunch of other clothes aside to allow himself easier access to the hanger, and his heart nearly stopped when a very, very familiar pair of big blue eyes locked onto his from behind where the outfit used to be.

 

\---

 

The sound of his cell phone receiving a text penetrated his half asleep half awake daze.

Bård may have waited a minute or two before he reached over, grabbed the mobile and swiped his finger across to see the message through slitted eyelids, since curtains covered the windows, leaving the room almost as dark as night time, and the light from the screen was too bright to get used to right away.

_“Come now.”_

“what..” Bård muttered to himself as he stared the message a few seconds before typing in a reply, _“why”_. He was always so cryptic in his texts, and it was still pretty early in the day, he didn’t understand what the rush could possibly be.

 

\---

 

“What are you doing here?!” The man hissed at Bård. He looked angry, but also worried.

But the boy just stared at him in confusion, jaw dropped as far as it would go without unhinging. His eyes looked exactly like Vegard’s, he noticed, though everything around them was different, older. That struck Bård as extremely peculiar.

“Where’s your brother, is he with you?” the man asked but immediately answered his own question when he peered further behind the clothes and found Vegard pressed up against the wall beside him.

“Why are you two here?”

“We’re sorry, sir! We didn’t mean to be here, we don’t know where we are! Honest!” Bård began blabbering, in hopes that maybe the man wouldn’t be too mad and just let them go.

 

\----

 

Vegard looked from one child to the other. Neither of the boys seemed to recognized him.

That’s when it dawned on him: this must be the very first time. It was so long ago he’d practically forgotten it, the concept of time having been so mixed up to a point he could barely remember the chronological order of some things in his childhood. But this had to be the first time. When they were kids they still remembered.  
They looked so young, it was like a having a picture taken out of an old photo album, made life sized and 3D. The younger versions of him and his brother were holding hands, young Vegard’s other hand raised vaguely in front of them, as if he was ready to grab little Bård or protect him in any way necessary, yet still uncertain as to whether it would be.

“Jesus, Bård, how old are you? Nine?” Vegard asked quietly after a long minute of silent mutual staring.

Bård looked over to the brother by his side, pleading for guidance. Younger Vegard rose to the request and answered in his stead,

“Yes, he is. How do you know his name is Bård?”

“I.. uh..”

How on earth was he going to explain this to them. ‘I’d never believe myself.’ he thought, as he looked at the little curly haired boy still sitting on the floor behind the clothes rack. Bits and pieces of when he was him were beginning to come back. He really didn’t believe himself at the time, so was there any sense in even trying to explain? The problem was the the memories felt like an old dream dreamt so long ago he could barely remember any details other than just the fact that it happened.  
This was such a terrible day for it too… Every time these boys showed up they complicated his existence beyond measure. Concert days were hard enough without this shit happening again… if he could just remember how he got them back to their own time, maybe he could do it faster.

“Please, mister. Where are we?” the early-teen Vegard interrupted his train of thought. Older Vegard blinked at him distractedly for a second before registering the question and it’s answer, “We’re in Stavanger.”

Bård glanced at his brother again, trying to read his face, but the young Vegard wouldn’t take his eyes off his older self. The confused crease between his eyebrows was still fresh and not as deep as the concerned one opposite him.

“A long way from home, boys.” Older Vegard sighed and lowered his gaze to the floor, before beckoning them with a hand gesture, “Come on. Get up from there.”

As the boys came out of their hiding place, Vegard took out his phone and sent Bård a quick text to get his ass down there as soon as possible. He knew what kind of kids they were, and he knew they’d be damn near impossible to handle on his own, what with everything that needs to be done. When he raised his eyes from his phone he saw that both kids were staring at the device with complete fascination.

“Wanna try it?” He asked little Bård, holding up the phone in front of him.

“What is it?” the boy asked.

“It’s a phone, and a really small computer at the same time. I can give you a game to play, if you want.”

He was already setting up one of his own son’s favorite games as he asked, and when it loaded he set the phone on the table and explained to the boys how to play it by touching the screen. Once they got over being allowed to touch the screen, and doing so having an effect on the game, they got the idea very quickly. Younger Vegard played first of course, but soon Bård was getting antsy, wanting to have a go himself. Vegard had to convince his younger self to let the child have it, promising him he’d have another chance later.

“Vegard.” he felt weird trying to get his younger self’s attention. The early teen tilted his head slightly towards him, that being the only indication he heard his name, since his eyes were still glued to the smart phone. “Vegard, I need you to concentrate for a second. I have to ask you something.”

Still barely a reaction.

‘Jesus, this kid..’ He thought to himself, then snapped his fingers in front of the boy’s face, making him blink. “Vegard, attention!”

Reluctantly the boy tore his gaze away from the game and looked his older self in the eyes. This was a feeling he was never used to, no matter when it happened in his life. It was strangely like looking in the mirror and at a different person at the same time. Even though he had no way to comprehend what had happened, even younger Vegard sensed a link to this man, a familiarity that both unnerved him and reassured him at the same time.

“My name is Vegard too, and my brother’s name is Bård, just like you. He’ll be here soon.” Older Vegard spoke slowly to the boy, trying to read his reaction. There was no need to lay too much on him at once, he was sure he’d figure it out by the end of this mess.

“Both your names are the same as ours?” the kid asked doubtfully.

“Yes.” Vegard nodded, “We also look a lot like you, you’ll see when Bård gets here. Now, I have an important question to ask you, okay?”

He nodded hesitantly. He sensed the undertone of impatience despite the man’s seemingly calm demeanor. He wasn’t normally this attuned to what other people around him were feeling, but he felt Vegard’s agitation as if it were coming from within himself.

“How did you get here?”

“We used a time machine!” Bård blurted without looking up from the phone before Vegard could answer.

“Shut up, Bård!” He nudged his little brother angrily. this was no time for the game.

“I don’t know how. We got into a rusty old box in our neighbor’s back yard and when we came out we were here. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I swear-”

“SHIT! The fucking time machine!” Vegard clapped one hand to his face hard, remembering the water closet he’d ordered off the stage. He lept off the chair he was sitting on and made for the door. Before opening it he turned to the boys, both looking up at him in intimidated confusion, and said, “Stay here and play with my phone. If you hear someone coming in hide again. Do not move from this trailer, do you understand me?”

Both boys nodded. Vegard knew well enough not to trust that nod, but he had no choice right now. He ran out of the room and sped up the stairs to the stage.

Of course, it was gone.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts, compliments and criticism are welcome (as long as you do it nicely).


	3. This Flimsy Thing Called Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brought to you from the seclusion of my short family vacation. Managed to get the internet to work enough to publish the latest chapter.   
> Hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope it's not too confusing

Vegard’s eyes lingered on the door that slammed shut behind their new acquaintance.  
He couldn’t shake the odd feeling that he knew him, and yet he was quite certain he’d never met him before in his life. He found himself trusting him, against his own usual judgment. Vegard and Bård weren’t the most obedient of kids, and by his own logic he saw no reason to do as this man, also named Vegard apparently, says. They should be finding a way back home. Mama and Papa were probably worried out of their minds, who even knew how long they’ve been gone, let alone how the hell they got all the way to Stavanger, of all places, from a backyard in Bergen. Maybe this other Vegard would help them.  
“How did he know our names..?” Vegard muttered, more to himself than for Bård to actually hear him.

“That guy’s weird.” Bård’s voice sounded loud and clear from behind him.

“Yeah..” He conceded, not that it answered his question.

“He looks like you, though. Maybe you’ll grow up to be that weird too.”

“What?” Vegard finally turned to look at his brother, whose face was still buried in the phone.

“You have the same eyes. And your hair..”

“Lots of people have brown eyes and black hair, Bård.”

“Yeah, but- Woah!” The phone suddenly vibrated in his hand, making him jump.

“What, are you breaking it now? Give it to me.” Vegard snatched the thing out of his hand and turned away with it.

“Hey!” Bård whined and reached over his big brother’s shoulder to try and retrieve it, “It’s still my turn!”

“Oh, what’re you going to do about it?” The teen walked away and held it out of his little brother’s reach.

“Give it back!” Bård scrambled around him, tugging at his sleeves, pulling his hair, anything he could think of to get Vegard to give in, or at least not have the chance to play himself. “Bård, stop! You’ll make me drop it, you can have your turn in a minute!” Vegard shoved him away so he staggered back a couple of steps.

“But I wasn’t done!!” Bård screamed.

“Will you shut up?! We’re supposed to be hidden!” He whispered, glaring at his pouting little brother.

Bård didn’t say another word but clenched his fists tight, then turned and bolted out the door.

“No Bård, stop!” Vegard yelled and ran out after him.

 

\---

 

The phone was ringing. Now what? Bård hurried out of the bathroom while still pulling his pants up and reached for the damn thing. The display showed a number that wasn’t one of his contacts. He hesitated to answer, not wanting to talk to someone he didn’t know at the moment, but whoever it was wasn’t giving up. Reluctantly, he swiped the screen and put the phone to his ear.

“Hallo?”

_“Where the fuck are you?”_

“Vegard?”

_“I need you here, Bård.”_

“Why aren’t you calling from your phone? What’s going on?”

Vegard was never this stressed before a show. Had his phone been stolen? But the sms earlier came from it. Even that seemed like too small a deal for Vegard’s apparent agitation. Bård started pacing the room as they talked.

_“Hopefully you’ll help me find it, and.. other things. I’ll explain when you get here, just please hurry. I’m waiting backstage, some fans are already up front.”_

“Okay, alright, I’m coming. We’ll figure it out, Vegard.”

_“Yeah.”_ Was all he heard before his brother ended the call.

He wasted no time from then on. Finished getting dressed, stuffed his pockets with wallet, phone and card key and hurried out of the room.

 

\---

 

He couldn’t find the men who’d taken away the time machine. Bård still hadn’t arrived. He still hadn’t checked the condition of his jeans. Some girls seemed to be congregating around the stage already. This morning was getting worse by the minute.   
He couldn’t for the life of him remember how he’d gotten himself and his brother back home that day 23 years ago. It occurred to him that he hadn’t yet experienced this as the older version of himself, but only as the twelve year old waiting in the trailer. But he still should know how he got home, shouldn’t he? He felt like hitting his head against a wall, as if that would knock the memories back into place. He knew Bård would remember nothing of this when he arrived. As they grew older and more years passed between ‘visits’, Vegard seemed to remember less and less of them happening at all, until they did. Perhaps it was his brain’s way of staying sane, since now that he was trying to think about it all, he felt so dizzy he might pass out. All that seemed to show for the jumbled passage of this flimsy thing called “time” was his increasing inability to focus on anything for very long. He was either so completely concentrated that the world disappeared around him and he wouldn’t even hear someone speaking to him, or he would get sidetracked by the tiniest things and sometimes completely forget what he was doing or talking about. He was lucky he had Bård with him, who for some reason always forgot the visits a lot faster than he did. Every time their past selves had shown up, it was almost a complete surprise to Bård and he had to explain it to him all over again, and he was sure today would be no different. Which was weird, because when teenage Bård had visited him on his own back in.. when was it, 2007? He had done so on purpose, remembering everything.  
‘How is it I can suddenly remember 2007 but I still can’t remember today..?’

Vegard shook his head in an attempt to clear it, curls flying everywhere. It was this kind of thinking in circles that weakened his ability to function, he knew it, and it’s not what he needed right now. He thought it best to check on the boys before he went back out trying to find the time machine. It couldn’t have gone far, could it? He walked into the trailer and looked around. The clothes on the rack were still parted and he could see no one was hiding behind it. The room was empty.

“Fuck!!” he shouted and ran back out.

He found another ONS worker, just coming out of another trailer with a thick rolled up cable, heading towards the stage.

“Excuse me,” he stopped her, “Hi, I’m Vegard Ylvisåker uh.. Ylvis, we’re performing here tonight..” he waited for her to recognize and nod, “Could I please just borrow your phone to make a couple of quick calls? I can’t find mine.”

“Oh! Uh.. Sure.” She said and pulled an iPhone out of her pocket, handing it to him.

“Thank you so much, I’ll just be a minute, I promise I won’t steal it.” He said as he took a few steps back for privacy. She chuckled and waved her hand, indicating her trust.

“Please answer...” He muttered as he dialed and pressed the phone to his ear 

\---

“Wait, the phone is doing something!”

Bård stopped struggling against the grip Vegard had on his shirt to keep him from running any further and looked at the screen. It displayed a bunch of numbers, and a flashing illustration with the words ‘slide to answer’.

The two boys looked at each other and then back at the phone. Should they answer it?

\---

“C’mon Vegard, you’re a smart kid.. Figure it out…” he mumbled through his teeth, his eyes searching around for Bård as the phone kept ringing in his ear.

\---

It took the dark haired boy a couple of tries until he got the icon from one side of the screen to the other and the display changed.

_“Vegard?”_   They heard a man’s voice, faint, come out of the phone.

“Hallo?” Vegard asked the phone loudly. Bård only watched, his mouth tightly shut.

The voice sounded again, but he could barely hear what he was saying.

\---

Finally, the boy answered.

“Vegard, it’s Vegard. You’re holding my phone.. Where are you?” Vegard paced back and forth, every once in a while glancing at the woman who was waiting a few meters away to get her phone back.

_“I can’t hear… I-I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”_ he heard the boy yell into the phone, forcing him to pull the one he was holding away from his ear and wince. He took a deep breath and let it out, covering his eyes with his free hand. Then he took another deep breath and shouted into the receiver, “PUT THE PHONE ON YOUR EAR!”  
He heard a quiet _“Oh..”_ on the other end and rolled his eyes.

“Can you hear me now?”

_“Wow. Yes.”_

“Good. Where the hell are you?”

_“Bård ran away!”_

“What? You lost him?!” Panic was rising in Vegard’s throat.

\--- 

“No, I caught him.” Vegard answered, looking over at Bård, who was yanking on his shirt repeatedly trying to get it out of Vegard’s hand. He heard a sigh of relief from the phone and then the question, _“Where are you?”_

He looked around, “Um, I don’t know.. on some stairs?” He had chased Bård a good long way from the stage before he finally caught up with him. At first they kept to the bank of the marina, but then Bård veered away from it between a couple of buildings and up a flight of stairs leading to a small road, and then more stairs. He’d finally managed to nab the child and was in the middle of wrestling him to the ground when the phone started ringing.

_“Well, why did he run away? What did you do?”_ He was getting worse at hiding his anger, young Vegard could sense it boiling within himself, hearing the accusation in his voice, and he glared at his pouting little brother while he answered.

“I didn’t do anything! The phone made a noise, I thought he was breaking it, so I took it away from him,”

Bård’s tightly sealed lips curved downwards in a very upset frown.

“..and when I wouldn’t give it back he just ran out the door! I told him not to-”

“He said I could have it! It wasn’t your turn!!” Bård screamed and stamped his foot, tears streaming out of the big blue eyes.

“...I _**said** _ we shouldn’t get in the time machine! I **_told_** you not to go outside! Now we’re lost and it’s all **_your_ ** fault!”

 

\---

 

Bård paid very little attention to the sound check. Vegard was doing great keeping up the “everything is normal” act, prancing around stage, joking with the guest singers for ‘Sammen Finner Vi Frem’, now that he himself was charged with remote-babysitting these kids who apparently had Vegard’s phone.  
He still wasn’t sure what was going on, though what Vegard had explained did ring a very faint bell in his memory.  
At first he had to call them because they hadn’t quite managed to understand the concept of sms-ing on their own, and it was when Vegard’s 12 year old voice answered the call that Bård believed every single word 35 year old Vegard had said. There was no way it could be anyone other than Vegard talking to him on the other line. He’d recognize that voice until the day he died, and he couldn’t believe how it still made him somehow feel smaller.

After a couple of phone calls he finally got an sms that read: _‘Bård is a big baby’_ , indicating that young Vegard had figured it out. He smiled to himself, replied _‘Yeah well Vegard is a little dork.’_ and from then on out it was just a matter of checking in on them every 5-10 minutes with a quiz question for them to answer, to be sure that they were alive and out of trouble.

He had a hard time understanding how nonchalant Vegard seemed to be about the whole thing now, given how stressed out he’d been before Bård arrived from the hotel. Some odd sort of zen came over him and he was almost completely into the rehearsal, talking cues and checking microphones as if nothing else was going on that day. In fact, he seemed to be in a better mood than he’d been in quite a while.

 

\---

 

He could hear the crying from his own end, behind the ruthless telling off which brought back that feeling of Deja vu he’d experienced earlier. Vegard could almost see little Bård in front of him, tears streaming down his face, defiance slowly being replaced with defeat in his expression. He was beginning to remember this, of all things. Oddly, when it was him personally who caused that crying, he couldn’t be less moved by it. But when it was someone else… And in this case it kind of was someone else, it pulled at his heart strings like only his own family could and the irritation drained from him just as fast as it had risen.

“Vegard. Vegard, stop.” he said calmly, but firmly, so the boy would listen. Now all he could hear was Bård's sobbing.

"I'm sorry I got mad." He said, and a moment later heard his younger self repeat the words to Bård, though he hadn’t told him to.

"Let me talk to him a minute."

_"Why? What will you say?"_

One corner of Vegard's lips curled into a resigned half-smile. He wouldn't expect himself to react any differently actually.

"Fine. look at the phone, the screen will turn on and there's a button that says 'speaker'. Press it and then you'll both hear me."

 

\---

 

Vegard's expression softened towards his hiccupping little bother. He was sorry he yelled at him, he knew the child hadn't meant for anything bad to happen. If anything it was his own fault for not dragging Bård out of the strange box and taken him home in the first place. How could the nine year old possibly have known the consequences of his actions? It was his job as older brother to make the judgment calls, and so it was he who had failed miserably. He fought the lump forming in his throat. The last thing Bård needed was for him to start crying now too. Instead he pulled the phone away from his ear and held it in front of them so Bård could see as well.

"Do you see a 'speaker' button?" He asked him gently, though he'd already found it himself.

The little boy nodded, his eyes glistening but out of tears for now.

"Press it then."

After a moment's hesitation, Bård raised his finger and touched the screen with a sniff.

"Well done, Bård." Said the older brother, finally letting go of his shirt and patting him on the back.

_"Can you both hear me now?"_ Vegard's voice sounded loud and clear from the phone's speaker. The kids confirmed.

_"I know you're both scared and confused, and I know neither of you meant for any of this to happen. The most important thing is that you don’t blame each other, okay? Everything will be much easier to handle if we all stay friends. This is nobody’s fault, you couldn’t have known this would happen. Do you understand me, Bård?”_

The boys looked at each other as they listened.  Bård nodded.

“He understands.” Vegard said into the receiver.

_“Bård, I wanna hear you say it. This isn’t your fault, okay?”_

“Okay..” The child’s voice was high pitched and pitiful, and he lowered his gaze to the ground.

\---

Leaning heavily on the side of the trailer, relief dripped down his forehead as he felt that he’d successfully defused the situation between the boys. It was bad enough that he didn’t know where they were, if they lost sight of each other, he didn’t know what the hell he would do.

“Okay boys, listen up. I don’t have time to come find you right now, because I have to start a rehearsal soon. I want you two to work together and find the marina again. Then I want you to stay there and learn something on the phone, do you think you can do that?”

_“Learn what?”_

“You can send written messages from one phone to another. I’m going to have Bård.. the other Bård, text message with you while we’re busy to be sure you’re okay. My phone will recognize him and you’ll see his name, so you’ll know it’s him. Just find a place to sit next to the water, don’t fall in, and learn how to text. It’ll be fun, I promise. I have to go now, can I trust you boys?”

_“um.. okay..”_ Young Vegard sounded very hesitant.

“Everything will be alright, Vegard. Don’t worry.”

He didn’t know whether it was himself he was reassuring or… himself.

There was a moment of silence on the line, and then Vegard checked the time.

“I have to go. Be good. Bye now.”

Once he disconnected the call, he looked up at the woman and held up his index finger to indicate he needed just one more call. He dialed Bård’s number from memory and waited.

_“Hallo?”_

“Where the fuck are you?”

 

\----

 

“There’s Bård.” She said into Dana’s ear.

“Where?”

“Walking up the street there, see?” pointing discreetly at the tall man in a black leather jacket, trudging away from the stage area. His head was bowed, perhaps he was looking at his phone, she couldn’t tell from her position on the steps, and he soon disappeared behind a building.

“Wanna tell the others?” Dana asked quietly, her eyes lingering on where she had pointed him out to her.

She looked past Dana, over to the girls sitting by the fence around the stage about 50 meters away. It was early afternoon, the sound-check ended kind of abruptly and now all they had left to do was to wait until 21:00, when the final concert of the Expensive Jackets Tour would start. They’d all been on the steps together, singing and fooling around, but it was a cloudless day and soon got too warm. Everyone save Dana and herself (the Norwegian sun being no match for their middle-eastern tanned skin) had gone to sit in the shade. No one else seemed to have noticed him walk by.

“Nah, he looks like he’s on his way somewhere. Don’t wanna bother him.”

 

\---

 

After returning the phone to its owner Vegard ran into the trailer that contained his costumes and slumped onto a chair, planting his face on the table beside it.  
‘How… how… how am I going to get us through this?’  
It seemed so impossible. The boys were lost. Bård was taking his sweet time, he still couldn’t remember how the hell they got back from this mess, the time machine, the preparations, the fans, his exhaustion, it was all piling up on his shoulders alone. Everything seemed to hang on his ability to remember what happened on this day 23 year ago, and that was the one thing he seemed incapable of doing.

And then…

He understood.

‘I don’t have to remember what happened.’ He realized, because it will happen anyway. Just the fact that he exists and is doing what he is doing right now proves that one way or another, the two young boys he and his brother once were, will go back to their own time and continue the chain of events as he himself had experienced it. No matter what he did, he could not change what had already happened, and the boys clearly already went back home, because he had.

He shut his eyes tight and reopened them.   
That was a bit much to think about, but the general principle, the important thing to understand was, that his own instinct, whatever he does from now on, will be the right thing to do. It will all work out. An almost goofy grin spread across his face as all this came to him, and he took off his trousers, trying on the new pair of black jeans he was to perform in that night. They were perfect.

“Vegard?” He heard Bård calling him from outside the trailer.


	4. It Was Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long LONG last, the final chapter.  
> However, this is not the end of the story. You may notice some unanswered questions, to be revealed in another story, already in the making.
> 
> Enjoy.

It took Bård and Vegard about an hour to finally spot the boys near the far end of the marina. Between Bård having to get them something to eat, Vegard discovering where the time machine was, and fans stopping them for a handshake and a photo opp, the search took longer than expected. Bård’s phone battery was running perilously low so they didn’t want to waste it on any more calls and messages.

“Look at that. Why don’t we ever sit like that anymore?”

Bård suddenly stopped in his stride, still a couple of  hundred meters away from them. Vegard, several paces ahead stopped too, looking back and forth from his age-matching brother and the two younger versions of themselves ahead. They were a small distance from the water bank, almost at the far edge of the marina from the stage, where it was stopped by an old looking building. A giant cargo ship parking there obscured them from the view of most people around the harbor, they were actually quite secluded. Bård was sitting cross legged, spooned by 12 year old Vegard, who had one leg cast along either side of his little brother, as he looked over his shoulder at the phone they both held in their hands together.

“Because we’re not kids?” Vegard asked, looking confused, “..And because you don’t need help operating a smartphone anymore..?”

“I know, but..” Bård trailed off, staring wistfully at the boys, who were completely into whatever they were doing on Vegard’s phone. Young Vegard appeared to touch the screen and say something, little Bård was listening with a very focussed expression. He looked so secure in his older brother’s lap.

“What?”

“No, nothing.” Bård tried to change his mind and start walking again, but Vegard caught his arm , “Come on now, out with it.”

The taller brother made an exasperated sound.

“I-Nothing! I just miss it sometimes, you know? I know it can’t be like that anymore, for one thing people would think we’re gay, but it was nice… to feel protected like that.”

Vegard’s expression softened into a proud smile, but he said nothing.

“I’m not saying I need to be cuddled by my big brother, don’t you dare!”

“No, no, of course not.” Vegard answered immediately, still smiling.

“I just miss being a kid sometimes, that’s all.” Bård chilled his tone until it sounded completely indifferent, as if he was speaking for someone else. He surprised himself how much he had revealed of himself, just from the sight of their past selves.

“Sure, I get it. You stopped being a kid very early on in life.” Vegard agreed, seemingly in all seriousness, but that confounded smile wouldn’t go away.

Bård suddenly noticed the weight of the takeaway bags in his hand and blinked back to the present.

“Well we better go.. have the weirdest lunch ever.” He said, and looked over to the kids who hadn’t moved the entire time. They started walking again and after a few steps Vegard slung his arm over Bård’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Shut up.”

\-- 

Sound check was going well. The biggest problem was Sammen Finner Vi Frem, and it was pretty clear that the song wasn’t going to come out perfect, but that didn’t matter very much. The faces they’d brought in for the job seemed to be enjoying themselves anyway, and that was the most important part. Vegard, master compartmentalizer that he was, put the whole time travelling matter out of his mind for the duration of the rehearsal, and focussed on everything being ready and in place for the show. He figured that if he managed to make it so he didn’t have to worry about anything for the show, it’d be one less thing weighing on him the rest of the day.

They were just about done when Bård came up to him and held his phone up for both of them to see, “look at this.”

‘Bård is hungry.’

Vegard’s own name appeared at the top of the screen as the sender of the message.

“Well, we better get him something to eat then.” Vegard said quietly, so no one could hear, “As far as I’m concerned we can wrap this up anyway, find the boys and get to figuring out how to send them home.”

“I wouldn’t mind eating, myself. I haven’t even had breakfast yet.” Bård interjected, still staring at the message.

Vegard chuckled, “Okay, get enough food for all of us. I’ll do another round and see if I can find the guys who took the time machine.”

They headed down the steps from the stage and out the back way from the enclosure.

“What should I get?” Bård asked.

Something caught Vegard’s eye across the street. An old man with messy hair and a grey sweater was standing in the shade of a tree in the park-roundabout that was the city center, staring directly at his younger brother. He had an eery feeling he knew who it was.

“Eh.. something your 9 year old self would want to eat?” He answered absentmindedly, beginning to walk towards the edge of the road.

“Not sushi yet, then.. are you okay?” Bård called after him.

“Yeah, fine. I got an idea. Go, I’ll meet you back here in 20 minutes, okay?”

\-- 

“No, I’m serious, it’s very hard to walk like this, short bastard.”

Vegard laughed and finally let go of him as they approached the boys. Bård was first to notice and look up from the phone and then, following his little brother’s movement, so did Vegard.

And there they all were. Two generations of the same Ylvisåkers defying the laws of physics and continuity, staring at each other. 35 year old Vegard knew he was the only one who could break the ice in this moment.

“I see my phone’s kept you two busy.” He said with a warm smile, reaching out for them to hand it to him. The boys reacted immediately, Bård let go of the device and Vegard handed it to him.

“Bård, Vegard, this is Bård. He’s been messaging you all morning.”

“And as promised,” Bård cut in, holding up the bags, “I brought lunch.”

The lunch turned out not to be as weird as Bård anticipated. Once he had settled into the idea that what sat before him were just a couple of kids, the likes of which he was quite used to having to deal with at home, the whole situation was easier to handle. Before long they were playing, throwing french fries at each other and attempting to catch them with their mouths, until too many of them ended up on the floor and they decided it was too much of a waste. It was then that young Vegard voiced his query.

“Was it you singing from the stage before?”

Bård and Vegard exchanged glances before answering the affirmative.

“So you’re.. famous musicians?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that…” Vegard dismissed, but on second thought added, “We have become pretty well known recently, but we’re comedians, not really professional musicians.”

“Vegard can play the guitar and piano!” little Bård blurted out, meeting the gaze of the dark haired man in front of him with wide eyed excitement and pride over his talented big brother.

“He’ll be able to do more than that, by the time he’s Vegard’s age.” The older Bård chimed in, nodding sideways at the eldest with a knowing smile. He turned his gaze from one boy to the other and was met with an intense brown eyed stare. The twelve year old was clearly thinking very hard. It was difficult for Bård’s mind to grasp the concept of this boy not being older than him anymore. He had to remind himself that he was being looked at as an adult right now, not the way Vegard would look at the nine year old sitting so close to him their sides were touching. Or was that really the case?  
Vegard looked like he had questions he was burning to ask, but for some reason didn’t dare. Bård wondered how much of what was going on had he managed to piece together on his own.

“Didn’t you say you found the time machine, Vegard?” He prompted the 35 year old, getting a tad unnerved by the young one’s invasive stare. Even as he said the words ‘time machine’ he saw something flicker in the boy’s eyes.

\--

"Can we talk for a minute?"

It was an hour before show time. Everything was ready, the boys were to wait in the trailer and watch the show on a small TV monitor, since they insisted on staying to see it, and at the end they would get in a couple of crates waiting at the ready which Ylvis would ask to have moved to storage in the Næringslivets Hus across the street from the event. Ylvis themselves would leave the stage area soon after, surrounded by bodyguards and taking a slightly longer route to the place as a distraction so the crates with the boys would surely go unnoticed.

Vegard was once again alone with them while Bård went over the dance routines with the backup dancers one last time. He was nearly done getting dressed for the part, though not yet made up. Little Bård had fallen asleep on a chair in the corner, and so it was a good opportunity to ask some questions he didn't necessarily want the child to hear. Vegard hung the Pressure jacket on the back of his chair and sat down.

"The time machine.."

"It's real. We're not just humoring Bård." Vegard answered before the boy could finish.

"And our names?"

The adult didn't answer, but their eyes communicated the truth. Disbelief, confusion.. The struggle was apparent on the boy's face as he tried to accept what he told Bård was impossible earlier that very same day. What he'd been suspecting for several hours now, was true. He was looking at his own future. He struggled to even find words, anything to say in a situation like this that could possibly convey how unbelievable it all was and how dizzyingly confused he felt.

"How do I.. What do I do with this?"

The man sighed and turned his gaze to both their hands on the table. Eczema didn't afflict the boy yet.

"You'll learn to put it away... Forget about it until it comes up again. Don't talk about it more than you have to, definitely don't tell anyone else about it."

Fatigue clouded over the man's face as he spoke. Vegard listened and felt the first weight of responsibility climb onto his own shoulders and nestle into the crook of his neck. 35 year old Vegard then reached across his own chest rubbed his stiff shoulder, and he knew more would come. The two sat quietly for a moment before Vegard found the nerve to ask, “Will we be okay?”

Vegard smiled at the timid look on his young face. More than ever was he thankful for how his life turned out so he could give the answer that came to him without hesitation.

“You have no idea how absolutely okay.”

\--

It was time.

Everything was ready. The stage was all set, the boys were safe in the trailer, the crowd was warmed up, and Ylvis had nothing left to do but to shift their own weight from one foot to the other as they waited for the video to end and the platform to raise them onto the stage. In the semi darkness it was impossible to see each other’s eyes through the sunglasses.

Bård considered his older brother as he watched him go through his daily mannerisms, licking his lips, checking the skin on his hands and scratching the stubble on his chin, to name a few. It suddenly occurred to him that he had very little to do with any of the arrangements regarding the time travelling situation. Vegard had filled him in more or less on the plan, given him tasks here and there, things to look after, but for the most part he’d handled almost all of it himself. But that’s always how he prefers it, isn’t it? Vegard was always one to take on the bulk of the labor when things needed to be done just so. Bård tried on occasion to take on more of a workload, but the control freak wouldn’t have it.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve got it.” was almost always the reply. Otherwise, Bård was mostly involved in thought process, idea generation and quality control.

\--

Vegard held Bård's hand and pulled him through the crowd. The boy wanted front row, so front row he was going to get. Finally all that stood between them and the barrier before the stage was a line of women, chattering between themselves and watching the fiery countdown on the big screen. But the stage was so high, Vegard could barely see past them, and Bård couldn't see anything at all. He tapped on the elbow of the woman in front of him and got her to turn around.

"Can we please be in front?" He asked her, but she shook her head.

"Your brother will get crushed here once the show starts. You should take him somewhere safer." She explained.

Five minute to go on the big screen. Vegard looked at the disappointment in Bård's face and didn't know what to do. Going further away, they might as well have stayed and watched the monitor in the trailer. He himself could still kind of see the stage, but the 9 year old could only see backs and shoulders.

Three minutes left. Another woman standing to their left glanced down at them, and a cheeky idea came to him. He was terrified to ask, but she looked capable enough and time was running out.

 --

The seconds ticked away on the screen. She was so excited. It felt like her entire winter had been building up to this moment, standing in Norway amongst her fan girl friends, almost front row center, best friend at her side as well with her camera at the ready. She knew what to expect, she'd seen plenty of videos, but that, if anything, only got her more pumped. A couple of boys suddenly popped up from among the crowd behind her. They were probably brothers, since there seemed to be a few years age difference between them. What were they doing there, though? Surely they were a tad young to be going to an Ylvis concert...

She assumed they were asking Anita to let them be in the front row, but she refused. The smaller, blond boy wouldn't have been able to see past the metal railing anyway. She turned her attention back to the stage and watched the numbers continue to count down past the three minute mark. But the boys still hovered around them helplessly, catching her eye once more. The young dark haired teen made eye contact with her, looking at first like a frightened hamster before timidly asking her something in Norwegian, too fast for her still untrained ears to follow.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." She answered, confusing the boy for a moment but he regained his composure and said in English that time, with the aid of small hand gestures, "can you.. Lift my little brother? Please?"

He pointed at the stage to clarify his reason for the request. She hesitated a moment, wondering whether he meant for her to hold him up the entire 90 minutes of the show. He looked so hopeful, though, she hadn't the heart to say no.

"Um okay. For one or two songs, yes?"

Surprised elation took over the boy's beautiful features.

"Yes, yes! Bård comer nå..." He turned quickly to his brother and explained his plan to him. Funny that the boy's name was also Bård. She wondered if they knew Ylvis' names, but it would be too complicated to try and mention it now and there were only two minutes to go until the show started. She knelt down on her knees, attracting confused looks from her friends and the people behind her. The older boy lifted the child by his armpits and draped him over her shoulders.

"Okay Bård?" He asked.

The little one must have nodded. His legs were shaking a little, she imagined perhaps from fright being on a stranger's shoulders, and he gripped the sides of her head with both hands. The black haired kid looked down at her and nodded.

"Okay, hold on." She said and rose carefully from the floor. A moment of tentative swaying and they were good and steady.

"Thank you! Thank you!" The older brother repeated, to which she nodded and smiled warmly, returning her sights to the screen.

Ten... Nine... Eight...

 --

“Come on, you can stand here.” The lady in front, seeing that someone had helped Bård, changed her mind and beckoned Vegard to stand beside her at the railing. Vegard glanced up at Bård high up on the woman’s shoulders before squeezing in between the people in front.

The countdown ended. Then a video started. It took Vegard a second to recognize the people on the screen as the Bård and Vegard whom they'd spent time with all day. He didn’t understand much of what was going on in the clip, but it all looked very dramatic, and was definitely getting the crowd worked up, some of them even screamed bloody murder when their eyes appeared, making Vegard jump and look up at Bård to make sure he was okay. When the strange video ended and the screen finally went dark, there was a hush over the scene. Nothing was happening on stage for several seconds, until suddenly a couple of heads appeared, rising from inside the stage! There they were, his and his brother’s future selves, unlike anything he would ever have imagined.

They looked so… cool.

Could this really be him in 23 years? He hadn’t even thought about entertainment as a career before. He’d thought in passing to maybe join the theater club at school in a year or two, but he figured he’d be too embarrassed to do that anyway. He was always so certain he’d become a pilot, but this looked amazing. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Bård was awe struck from the very moment the eldest Vegard appeared on stage, and it only got better as the show progressed. Not only was he wearing awesome futuristic clothes, but he was rocking the stage like he’d never seen before. Interestingly, even though he’d sort of just assumed that this was the case, it was only when he started singing that he knew for sure that they had in fact travelled in time and come across their futures. He knew it was Vegard up there, the only Vegard who could do this, he could hear it in his voice.  
It was only in the third song, one where Bård left the stage and Vegard stayed on in a dorky blue shirt and finally singing in Norwegian, that the man on stage spotted Bård in the crowd. For a fraction of a second Bård saw in his eyes so many emotions, he was almost sorry for disobeying him and leaving the trailer to be there. Almost.

However, it was only a moment before Vegard was back in the performance.

 --

"Bård is front and center on some stranger's shoulders. See if you can find Vegard." He murmured quickly to Bård as he changed shirts for "Work It". Bård heard but made no reaction other than eye contact before going out to start the song.   
He wasn't surprised. The only thing that really worried Vegard was that he seemed to be alone, or with someone he didn't know. He took a swig from a water bottle and reminded himself that it all works out in the end. The was no other possible outcome.

 --

By the start of "Work It" her shoulders and lower back were aching dangerously. The kid was having fun, at times he even let go of her head and cheered along with everyone, making her have to work harder for balance. He seemed to be a big fan of Vegard, especially during shabby Chic. She felt bad taking this away from him, but when Pie Jesu was about to start she used the opportunity to crouch down and let him off.

His older brother didn't notice until she touched his shoulder, then the teen turned around and she told him she was sorry, but they should probably get out now. He glanced back up at the stage in slight disappointment but nodded, took the arm of his little brother and disappeared into the crowd.

 --

Granted, there was a ton of fake blood impeding his vision, but when Vegard stood up at the end of Pie Jesu he couldn't see the child Bård in the crowd anymore. Calle's air horn classics took the stage, buying him some valuable time to see if they'd perhaps found their way backstage again. Bård stayed by the stage to monitor the concert while Vegard rushed to the trailer and breathed a sigh of relief when he found the two sitting in front of the screen he left them, as if they'd never even gone.  
The look of horror on their faces when they looked up at him made him realize he hadn't even bothered to wipe his face.

"Oh, it's fake blood. You'll love it, Bård, don't worry. We never get tired of this one." He reassured, stepping towards them and sitting down by the table, "now please tell me you were out there together and that Bård didn't just climb onto someone else's shoulders on his own."

"I was there. Bård just wanted to see it up close." Vegard said, bracing himself for another scolding. They were all quiet for a second, waiting for his reaction. Waiting for him to lose his temper and tell them off for doing something so stupid and dangerous. But instead he just shook his head, a weary smile emerging amid all the artificial blood caked onto his face, making his teeth appear extra white.

"Well, are you at least having fun driving me crazy?" The man asked with a laugh.

Vegard didn’t laugh, but Bård did. His sheepish grin brought on a wave of nostalgia and affection, and without thinking much Vegard brought a finger up to his own face, gathered some still wet paint from his cheek and then reached over, painting the giggling boy’s nose red.  
How he wished he could have stayed in that moment, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Calle running around stage with his air horn on the tv monitor. Agitation from the pressure of time was creeping up his spine.

“Okay, I have to get going again. Remember the deal, you see Bård and I wearing fluffy costumes singing ‘what does the fox say’ and you get into those crates.”

“Can’t we both be in one crate?” the teen Vegard asked, glancing with displeasure at the objects in question. He didn’t like the whole idea at all, and he liked even less that him and Bård were to be separated.

“I know, I don’t like it either. I swear I tried to find bigger crates, this is the best I could get. But I promise everything will be fine.”

Vegard was met with a scowl from his younger self, and he sensed an emotion bubbling underneath it. Hostility?  
The older man knew by now that strong emotions were shared between the respective generations. When one of them got angry, the other would get angry too, whether or not they were even reacting to the same thing. Knowing this, however, Vegard had the sense to push away the creeping feeling of disdain towards the angry teen glaring at him. Whatever the reason was for this sudden shift, he had no time for it, so he turned to the one boy who was still responsive to him.

“Bård, listen carefully now, this is very important.”

The blond child wiped the smile off his face and took on a concentrated expression.

“I’m leaving you in charge of this mission. Don’t let that trouble maker-” He pointed his thumb at Vegard, “-run off again. It’s very very important that you do as I say, so you can get home and live this dream, okay?”

“What?! But I never..” Vegard began to voice his outrage at the insinuation, but the other Vegard got up resolutely and turned to leave. He knew what he was doing.

“Alright, boys. I’ll see you in a while. Enjoy the rest of the show!”

 --

One could barely hear the fireworks starting up ahead for the cheers coming from thousands of people spread across the square before them. The Expensive Jacket Tour was finally over. Vegard felt like he could almost burst into tears, if he were one to do that sort of thing. He glanced over at Bård, who seemed to be basking in the moment for all it was worth.

Good.

Vegard’s greatest concern every time they crossed paths with their past or future selves, was to keep Bård as far removed from the burden as possible. The paradox and complexities ate away at his own mind if he let them, he knew he was able to compartmentalize and set it aside for his own sake, but he couldn’t trust that Bård would be able to do the same. The more oblivious he could let him be, the better. Bård knew of the plan they were about to carry out, but he didn’t know the details behind it; how he came up with it or who had helped him. Nor did either of the Bårds ever display much curiosity about it, Vegard noticed. Perhaps, in a way, he understood that he was better off not knowing.

\--

Vegard slid his key into the lock of their house’s front door and turned. They weren’t sure why, but they both felt the need to be very quiet as they re-entered their house. The older versions of themselves had assured them that they were returning to the exact moment when they left, yet because of everything they’d been through, it was hard for their minds to grasp the difference between the two concepts of time.

Everything stood still in the house. The lights were all off, though plenty came in through the windows still, no TV or radio sounds, in fact there were no sounds whatsoever coming from any of the rooms aside for the faint humming of the refrigerator. Vegard wondered if there even was anyone home.

“Mama?” He called. His voice felt too loud in the quiet. No answer came. They wandered into the kitchen and found a note on the table in their mother’s handwriting:

 

> _‘Darling boys,_
> 
> _Gone out with Bjarte to run some errands, will be home in about an hour._
> 
> _Leftover pizza in the fridge._
> 
> _Love,_
> 
> _Mama’_

 

So they were on their own for now.

Vegard turned a blank look to Bård, “Want some pizza?”

“Okay.” The boy said. He wasn’t actually hungry, but he wasn’t one to turn down a slice of pizza when offered.

Vegard made his way to the fridge and found the aforementioned food on one of the shelves. Once it was heated they each took a slice and headed over to the sofa in the living room and turned on the TV. They landed on some familiar cartoon and stared at it absentmindedly as they chewed, each of their minds millions of miles away, going over everything they’d been through that day. Vegard understood what his older self had meant when he said that he would learn to forget. His little mind was already struggling to keep it all together and he found himself yearning to forget it ever happening. But he also knew that it would come back. One day he would be that 35 year old and have to deal with himself and his little brother trespassing foolishly through the laws of time. They’d created the loop they had always been in. This was the very first time, and yet there was no first time. Perhaps this meant it wasn’t a mistake, that things were just as they were meant to be. Whatever the case was, he was quite sure he never wanted to use that time machine again.

“Vegard?”

“Hm?”

At first Bård didn’t speak, and when his older brother turned his head to look at him his eyes were still fixed on the TV when he finally said,

“I can’t wait to grow up with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I love compliments. But in this particular case, I would ask that you also take the time to ask me any questions that may have come to you in reading this story. Anything at all you find yourself curious about that doesn't get answered here, please let me know.

**Author's Note:**

> Can you guess where they landed?


End file.
